About the Blog

I will post a new entry every few weeks. Some will be new writing and some will be past work that has relevance today. The writing will deal in some way with the themes that have been part of my teaching and writing life for decades:

•teaching and learning;•educational opportunity;•the importance of public education in a democracy;•definitions of intelligence and the many manifestations of intelligence in school, work, and everyday life; and•the creation of a robust and humane philosophy of education.

If I had to sum up the philosophical thread that runs through my work, it would be this: A deep belief in the ability of the common person, a commitment to educational, occupational, and cultural opportunity to develop that ability, and an affirmation of public institutions and the public sphere as vehicles for nurturing and expressing that ability.

My hope is that this blog will foster an online community that brings people together to continue the discussion.

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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

I have a new book
coming out in about two weeks and want to let my readers know about it. It’s
called Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education. The
publisher added this “reading line” to the cover An Argument for
Democratizing Knowledge in America. The title and reading line give a
pretty good sense of the book’s purpose: To both champion and improve those
institutions that provide a second chance at educational success, particularly
the community college and adult school. This purpose is embedded in a broader
purpose: to remind us in these budget cutting times how fundamental such
institutions are to our nation’s definition of itself as an egalitarian,
second-chance society, and to our social and economic vitality. I reprint below
the short preface and the table of contents.

***

Preface
to Back to School

This
is a book about people in tough circumstances who find their way, who get a
second… or third… or fourth chance, who, in some cases, feel like they are
reinventing themselves. Education can play a powerful role in creating that
second chance.

At
a time when public institutions are held in low regard, and schools at all
levels are under assault – for good reasons and bad – Back to School
demonstrates what education can do…even though it was often earlier schooling
that let people down. The stories in this book affirm the transformational
potential of the college classroom, the occupational workshop, the tutoring
center, the mentoring relationship.

One
of the defining characteristics of the United States is its promise of a second
chance; this promise is central to our vision of ourselves, and to our economic
and civic dynamism. When we are at our best as a society, our citizens are not
trapped by their histories. Sadly this possibility is contracting, partly
because of a damaged and unstable economy but more so because of our political
response to the economy. There are better ways to respond and to foster the
growth of a wider sweep of our population. I hope Back to School points
us in that direction.